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Published (Version of record)CC BY-NC-ND V4.0, Open Access
Published (Version of record)CC BY-NC-ND V4.0, Open
Book chapter
The Cultural, Social, and Economic Impact of Papua New Guinea’s Liquified Natural Gas Project
Voices from the Darker Side of Development
Centre for Human Rights Education, Curtin University
2021
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Abstract
Over time, colonial discourse has determined how Indigenous and non-European citizens, subjects and land spaces are perceived, particularly in the sense that they are “savage” and in need of “civilising”. This ideology has paved the way for the invasion and domination of non-European people and land, and is still present in modern ideology, particularly when
spoken about in terms of the “developing world” and in “development projects” by European, American and Australian organisations (West, 2016). These “developments” often prioritise profit and western goals, while marginalising and oppressing indigenous peoples. This chapter will examine the Papua New Guinea (PNG) Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project, which was projected to bring great economic growth to the state and local people of PNG. However, the project has underperformed in terms of employment, economic benefits and promised infrastructure, and left the indigenous people dispossessed from their traditional ways of life, culture and identities. The project has also compromised the local marketplace and brought upon social problems such as lower access to education and healthcare, increased crime, adultery, and alcoholism, broken down traditional family ideals, and generated feelings of loss around indigenous ways of life and land. Additionally, inadequate access to formal land titles, royalties and benefits has been widely reported as a major failure of the development (Raitt & Battrick, 2012). Natural resource extraction development, and the commodification of such resources, should not be prioritised over the cultural and social well-being of the local and indigenous people. Therefore any “developments” that should come about in PNG (or elsewhere) should work to advantage indigenous people and amplify indigenous voices, histories, traditions and knowledge. We should ask, is the loss of indigenous life, culture and traditional economic systems worth the monetary value of a mining project?
Details
- Title
- The Cultural, Social, and Economic Impact of Papua New Guinea’s Liquified Natural Gas Project
- Creators
- Emily Munro (Author) - Southern Cross University, Library Services
- Contributors
- Yirga G Woldeyes (Editor) - Curtin UniversityGaylene Galardi (Editor) - Curtin UniversityRebecca Higgie (Editor) - Curtin UniversityErin Thomas (Editor) - Curtin University
- Publication Details
- Voices from the Darker Side of Development
- Publisher
- Centre for Human Rights Education, Curtin University
- Identifiers
- 991013210513702368
- Copyright
- Copyright © Yirga Gelaw Woldeyes, Gaylene Galardi, Rebecca Higgie and Erin Thomas (eds); individual contributors their contributions. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
- Academic Unit
- Library Services
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Book chapter